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Gadget Wars

Technology giants are making a big push to bring more hand-held devices to consumers at a faster pace, creating fresh ammunition in the cutthroat gadget wars. Apple, long seen as the innovator in smartphones, has been wrestling with an image problem lately. Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, is trying to sustain its momentum with the coming release of its next Galaxy phone.

Apple Seeks $2.2 Billion in Damages from Samsung in Patent Trial

Applesaid it is entitled to $2.2 billion in damages from Samsung for infringing on five of its patents because the infringement came during a period of rapid expansion of the smartphone market.

In U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., Christopher Vellturo, an economist and Apple’s damages expert, said the patent infringement covered more than 37 million smartphones and tablets sold by Samsung in the U.S. from August 2011 to the end of 2013. The total revenue generated by those devices is confidential.

Vellturo testified during the fifth day of the latest trial in Apple’s long-running patent feud with Samsung. During questioning by Apple’s lawyers, Vellturo said the $2.2 billion damages claim is justified because of the scope and timing of the infringement, when the smartphone market was “in a profound state of change and growth because so many people are coming in and buying phones.”

Vellturo said Samsung, as Apple’s main rival, stood to benefit the most from any infringement that cut into iPhone and iPad demand. Vellturo said the patents at issue covered software features that made phones easier to use — an area of weakness for Samsung.

“That had a dramatic effect on Apple, and the compensation is therefore substantial,” said Vellturo, who hasn’t yet been cross-examined by Samsung’s lawyers.

Vellturo said he is being paid $700 per hour by Apple and has worked approximately 800 hours on this case. That would amount to a fee of $560,000.

Apple’s damages claim is a main sticking point in the trial that started last week. Apple’s $2.2 billion demand surprised intellectual-property lawyers given the extensive number of patents at use in today’s smartphones and tablet computers.

Samsung’s lawyers called Apple’s request a “gross, gross exaggeration” that “vastly overrated the scope” of its patent claims. To advance the perception that Apple was overreaching, Samsung is asking for about $7 million for two of its software patents that it says Apple violated.

During the proceedings on Tuesday, Apple’s lawyers tried to paint Samsung as desperately seeking ways to counter the innovations of Apple’s iPhone. Apple revealed an internal email from 2010 quoting J.K. Shin, the head of Samsung’s mobile business, saying that Samsung was having a “crisis of design” as it sought to make something like the iPhone to keep mobile carriers happy.